Friday, October 19, 2012

Arab-Americans for _____ Draws Criticism from _____ and Silence from _____

Can you imagine the outcry, furor, and probable expressions of hate and rage that would fill the airwaves if President Obama announced a group of Arab-Americans for Obama? And imagine if some of the members of that group were linked to support for Palestinians or even Hamas. I’m sure that Fox News would tell us that was proof that President Obama really was a Muslim. Voices across the right would see that as legitimization of their view that President Obama really doesn’t like Israel. And I suspect that many American Jews would begin to second guess their support for President Obama. However, so far as I know, President Obama hasn’t announced the existence of such a group supporting him.

But there is a group of Arab-Americans for Romney. In fact, the Romney campaign issued a press release to tout this new group on October 12. Hmm. I don’t recall hearing Fox News or Rush Limbaugh or any of the other talking heads on the right discussing this development (or, perhaps more properly, I didn’t see those talking heads exploding).

The Romney campaign’s recently announced “Arab-Americans for Romney” includes some of the Republican Party’s staunchest advocates for the Palestinian cause, some of whom have worked directly against positions shared by the intensely pro-Israel Republican Party and President Barack Obama.

The list, which includes some prominent sitting and former members of Congress like Darrell Issa and Sen. John E. Sununu (the son of Gov. John Sununu), as well as anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist's wife Samah. Also on the roster is George Salem, an advisor to global lobbying firm DLA Piper who has recently been involved in bitter infighting in Washington’s pro-Palestinian community, pushing for a more confrontational stance toward Israel.

Salem sits on the board of the American Task Force on Palestine, a group in Washington that is aligned with Salam Fayyad, the technocratic Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority. Salem was at the heart of a dispute last year inside the organization, in which, according to an ally’s account, he pressed for the group to support the Palestinian pursuit of statehood before the United Nations, a move Israel feared and that the United States openly opposed.

Salem didn’t respond to a request for comment, but Fayyad’s allies in the American Task Force on Palestinine’s leadership were surprised to see his name on Romney’s list. “Honestly, it seems like [Romney] didn’t do his homework,” said one source on the side of the current ATFP leadership.

…

Pro-Israel Democrats, however, complained to BuzzFeed Thursday that Romney was paying no political price for associating him with Israel critics at a time when Obama has been pounded constantly on alleged breaches of faith with the Jewish State.

“I’m not saying all these individuals are anti-Israel, but if this were the other way around, that’s exactly how they’d be portrayed,” said Democratic strategist Aaron Keyak, a veteran of the partisan Israel wars, of the list. “There would be a breaking [Republican Jewish Committee] release and a big bold headline on Drudge, Free Beacon, Weekly Standard, and Fox News: ‘Obama's Anti-Israel Kitchen Cabinet. Instead — silence.”

The list, which was announced on Friday, has garnered little attention outside of foreign policy circles.

“There's nothing wrong fundamentally with having an Arab-American group,” said David Harris, president of the National Jewish Democratic Council. “But I’m sure the Obama folks would be pilloried if they put out any affinity group led by individuals who were deeply opposed in principle to Iran sanctions, for example,” he said, referring to Rep. Justin Amash, a libertarian and ally of Rep. Ron Paul who voted against the sanctions.

Other pro-Israel activists were agitated but declined to be quoted criticizing Romney.

“The fact that the Romney folks have an anti-Israel activist like George Salem and a guy like like Grover Norquist, who has been widely criticized, including by Republican members of congress, for long standing ties to terrorists and supporters of terrorists groups, affiliated with their campaign is pretty troubling,” said one official with a Jewish organization. “If this were the Obama campaign, you can only imagine the howls of outrage that we would be hearing from Conservatives — and rightly so.”

Salem’s role produced particular complaints, in part because of his role in connecting President George W. Bush with Arab American leaders who were later pushed well out of the political mainstream. Salem has served as a lawyer for the Holy Land Foundation, a group with ties to Hamas, which President Bush shut down in 2001, and has been the target of at-times intense intra-party criticism since then.

I agree with David Harris (of the National Jewish Democratic Council); there is nothing wrong with Romney having Arab-Americans who support him. And there is obviously nothing wrong with a group of Americans, no matter what their ethnic or religious background, supporting any candidate of their choosing or trying to influence policy. But the double-standard on the issue is simply stunning.

Do you honestly believe that an Arab-Americans for Obama group wouldn’t be the subject of an anti-Obama TV commercial throughout the country? Do you honestly believe that people wouldn’t see such a group as proof that Obama “hates” Israel or is really a Muslim? And just imagine if that group included people with ties to the Palestinian Authority or even Hamas… It would be brutal. The so-called Emergency Committee for Israel would be taking out full page ads in every newspaper across the land. But when the support is given, not to President Obama, but rather to Mitt Romney? Crickets. Silence. Nada.

To my Jewish friends who are uneasy about their support for President Obama (or who may not be supporting him because of Israel, I ask you to think about these questions.

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